Preview: ‘Essential Rogue Trooper Volume 2: The Traitor General’

by Richard Bruton

The second volume of this Essential Rogue Trooper takes in the absolutely essential bit of Rogue Trooper’s tale, as this last Genetic Infantryman goes looking for the Souther general who betrayed his GI comrades in the Quartz Zone massacre – The Traitor General.

Another of 2000 AD‘s Essential series, and there can be no doubt that these second set of tales by Rogue’s co-creator Gerry Finley-Day, this time joined on art by the quite breathtakingly great skills of Colin Wilson and Cam Kennedy, are nothing less than essential.

Again, in case you don’t know, the basic story of Rogue Trooper is such a simple thing. It takes place on Nu Earth, the Southers fighting a seemingly never-ending war against the Norts. The atmosphere of Nu Earth turned toxic by the war. The Southers response is to create the Genetic Infantrymen, bred to survive, super soldiers in the war. But all it takes is one Souther general to betray them and leave just one GI, along with the souls of three of his fallen comrades as bio-chips in his gun (Gunnar), his helmet (Helm), and his backpack (Bagman), to fight a war on his own.

It’s such a gloriously simple tale that finds itself at its apex of perfection here. Where the first volume of this Essential series reprints the origin and early tales, giving us all of this iconic sci-fi war tale’s earliest and so brilliant moments, this second volume gets into the quest driving Rogue forwards, the hunt for (and the finding of) The Traitor General.

This, in many ways, is the end of Rogue Trooper, this revenge tale reaching its natural conclusion right here.

We open, still early in Rogue’s history, as his hunt for the now disfigured Traitor General finds him pitching up on the doorstep of ‘The Marauders‘, a troop of deserters from both Nort and Souther forces, operating under the rule of their commander, unbeknownst to Rogue, the Traitor General.

Rogue’s got a short-list of four high up Souther generals he suspects as being the traitor, but the Traitor General’s severely burned face is now unrecognisable. Of course, with the breakneck speed of this one, it only takes until the end of episode 2 for the Traitor General to review himself to Rogue. Yes, it’s a very, very fast strip, action trumping character development, but it just goes towards making it all the more thrilling, a breathless action-packed thing handled so incredibly well by both Wilson and Kennedy on art, although Wilson

And so it goes on, through a few more rather thrilling tales, Rogue and the Traitor General, conflict, escape, conflict, escape, all leading up to the inevitable end, giving us a genuinely thrilling conclusion to the tale. The end of the Traitor General storyline really is an ending in all the best ways. And it’s a really honestly thrilling and fast-paced tale. The action never lets up for a moment here, a genuine classic from the early days of 2000 AD.

Interestingly, we also get Gordon Rennie and PJ Holden’s ‘Hunted’ and ‘Hunted: Furies’, telling things more from the point of view of the Traitor General himself, including his motivations for doing just what he did. You might not think it’s essential, as in the definition of the book you’re holding, but it’s provided here as something that fleshes out the essential tale, gives it context and gives it greater scope. It’s a clever inclusion for sure, adding a lot to those early Rogues. It also included a young Atalia Jaegir, a Nort, who Rennie would expand upon in the future, showing us that the way to take the world of Rogue forwards wasn’t necessarily by concentrating on Rogue at all. After all, in a war, there are so many fascinating stories to tell, not all of them in the limited tales of one Rogue GI.

Yes, as I’ve said in the past, Rogue Trooper is a character and a series that was defined by the stories contained here in the Essential Rogue Trooper volumes 1 and 2, something very simple and effective, a tale of war and revenge. But just because it’s so self-contained doesn’t mean the tales here, effectively wrapping up all you need to read of Rogue, aren’t a damn fine sci-fi war tale done with such style from all concerned.

The Essential Rogue Trooper Volume 2 – The Traitor General

Written by Gerry Finley-Day and Gordon Rennie

Art by Colin Wilson, Cam Kennedy, and PJ Holden.

Colours by Len O’Grady, letters by Bill Nuttall, Yony Jacob, Peter Knight, Clive McGee, Simon Bowland, Ellie De Ville.

Originally serialised in 2000 AD Progs 282-289 (Marauders), 327-332 (‘Eye of the Traitor’), 387-392 (‘To The Ends Of Nu Earth’), 2001-2009 ‘(Hunted’), 2034-2043 (‘Hunted: Furies’)

Published by 2000 AD on 29 January 2025.